Manchester United supporters must be wondering what is coming over their former heroes, but it says everything about the intensity of this most intriguing of relegation battles, that, just weeks after Mark Hughes declared that keeping Blackburn Rovers in the Barclays Premiership was the greatest achievement of his glittering career, Bryan Robson announced that doing the same with West Bromwich Albion would be the best of his.
Some may dismiss such utterances as flippant, throwaway remarks designed to rouse his players for one last push, but they should not be taken lightly. Robson won two league championships, the Cup Winners’ Cup, the League Cup and the FA Cup three times during 12 remarkable years at Old Trafford, but the look of relief and exhaustion that enveloped his face at the final whistle of this lop-sided contest suggested he would trade all those trophies for victory at home to Portsmouth on Sunday, and a place in the Premiership next season.
Much as they should have been against an infinitely superior, but worryingly wasteful United team on Saturday, West Bromwich’s season looked beyond salvation a few months ago, but it is testament to Robson that they now have a realistic chance of becoming the first side that was bottom of the Premiership at Christmas to avoid relegation. Indeed, it would say as much about the character of his players as his own resilience if Robson pulls off one of the most improbable escape acts in recent memory.
Many wondered whether he would return to management after his brief tenure at Bradford City — he lost 20 of his 28 games in charge — but the former England captain has put that painful memory behind him and is determined to achieve what he failed to do in 1997 when Middlesbrough were relegated on the final day of the Premiership season.'